As the Buffalo Bills and NFL move towards free agency and the draft, my position-by-position "State of the Bills" offseason series continues with a look at the defensive tackles:
Under contract:
- Star Lotulelei
- Ed Oliver
- Brandin Bryant
- Eli Ankou
Pending Free Agents:
- Harrison Phillips (UFA)
- Vernon Butler (UFA)
- Justin Zimmer (RFA)
State of the position:
There are two really big questions facing this position group in the short-term:
1.) Should the team move on from Star Lotulelei, who is still under contract for two more seasons?
2.) Should they re-sign Harrison Phillips, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent?
Let’s start with Lotulelei.
After opting out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 related issues, he returned to the Bills in 2021. However, availability became an issue. After missing opening week with a calf injury, Lotulelei returned to play the next seven contests, but he then played in only four of the remaining nine games due to both injuries and being on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
In those final three games he played (Weeks 15, 17, and 18), Lotulelei saw a drastic reduction in his usage, too. While he was normally playing around 50% of the snaps in previous contests, he never played more than 34% in any of those games, and topped back out at 43% in the Bills' AFC Divisional Round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The transition away from Lotulelei and mostly to Phillips was noticeable, both in usage and production.
Lotulelei has two years left on a contract that will cost the Bills north of $9.2 million in cap dollars this year, and just shy of $9 million in 2023. It seems, on the surface, to be an easy decision to just release him this offseason. However, by doing that, even with a post-June 1 designation, they would save $4.1 million on their cap but still have to count $5.4 million for Lotulelei, even though he wouldn’t be on their roster.
A pre-June 1 release would save only $1.5 million and cost $7.7 million in dead cap space, so that seems even much less likely.
Lotulelei‘s benefit on the team isn’t measured in numbers, although he did have 3.0 sacks last season in those 11 games. His value is mostly being a run stopping defender who can help neutralize offensive linemen and allow linebackers to do their jobs better. The Bills went from 17th in the league against the run in 2020 without him to 13th in 2021 with him. An improvement, but not the kind that would scream that they absolutely need him back.
Phillips took advantage of the opportunity when Lotulelei was out. After being inactive for three of the first five games as he recovered from a preseason knee injury, he not only got back on the field into a regular rotation, but over the next nine games led all other defensive tackles in snaps in eight of them and all defensive lineman, including ends, in seven.
To illustrate the point even further, in the five games Phillips played in the first half of the season, he played 39.2% of the total defensive snaps. But in the final nine games, he played 62.7% of the snaps, which is a huge number for any Sean McDermott defensive tackle.
Despite missing three games and starting only eight, Phillips led all Bills defensive linemen with 51 total tackles. He’s now going to be an unrestricted free agent. Phillips would like to stay in Buffalo and he fits everything the Bills love in their players on and off the field. He’s a leader, hard worker, and terrific in the community.
I expect both sides to work on making it happen to bring him back. Whether that ultimately happens may depend on if another team feels Phillips is worthy enough for a contract offer the Bills just can’t match.
Ed Oliver just keeps getting better and better, and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue. Oliver had 4.0 sacks on the season, but 3.5 of them came in the final three games when he was completely dominant, at times. He also had 12 total tackles, four tackles for loss, and six quarterback hits in those three games.
Oliver is headed into his fourth season, and the Bills have until May to exercise his fifth-year option to keep him under contract for two more years. General manager Brandon Beane all but confirmed the team will do that at his end-of-season press conference. He’ll cost $6.2 million against the salary cap this season.
Vernon Butler was inactive for seven games this season, while suiting up for 10 of them. He was inactive for four of the final seven games, despite costing the team over $5 million against their cap. As an unrestricted free agent, it’s hard to see him coming back unless it’s on a veteran minimum deal or similar just to add depth and fight for a spot at camp.
Justin Zimmer made a name for himself in 2020 after first punching the ball out of Cam Newton’s arm late to seal a win against the New England Patriots. He then showed off incredible speed for a 300-pound defensive tackle while running down the field on Taron Johnson’s pick-six in the playoffs against the Baltimore Ravens.
This past season, Zimmer was really starting to blossom as a solid defensive tackle, but unfortunately suffered a season-ending knee injury in early November.
Heading into this offseason, Zimmer will be a restricted free agent. This means the Bills will have a chance to retain his rights by giving him a minimum qualifying offer of what’s protected to be about $2.4 million. That’s probably too rich for the Bills to justify for his role and coming off the injury. They can probably bring him back at a much lower rate, banking on another team not giving a much better offer.
Brandin Bryant spent the season on the practice squad, elevated for three games, seeing action in two of them. He signed a Reserve/Future contract and will be back in camp.
Eli Ankou also signed a Reserve/Future contract to come back after being signed to the practice squad midway through the season, but he appeared in five of the final seven games and contributed very valuable snaps. He earned a shot to not only come back and fight for a job, but maybe even claim an increased role if he can.
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